I suspect those fire extinguishers were collected by some railroad employee who is a secret hoarder. Soon after the picture he probably showed up with a giant bag to put them in, then he jumped off the train with them ( his very own DB Cooper moment ).

Until I read your comment I could not remember. Then, like a flash, I remembered what happened (if my memory does not fail). The fire extinguishers were delivered to the last Russian train station, custom house just before the border. So no thief/ves involved

Well, in theory I survived the snow offensive. No onslaught at all, not a single pocket. And I am of course surprised Yes, I massively pulled back the bulk of my forces and then retreated 3 or 4 hexes -in front of the big panzer concentration near Stalino- the few remaining fontline units. Still, maybe Marquo could have advanced & then bagged some of them. Maybe he's been way too timid or cautious.

So mate, have the watermelon, it's the only thing you have been allowed to swallow

And I am really a moron. I don't know if I should cry or laugh I did not know units on refit mode (10 hexes minimum away from enemy units) recovered morale faster. I did some tests yesterday and finally asked Helpless. Which means, had I known this, by now I'd have a stronger Red Army.

Oh well...

In any case this means all my strategic reserves (the + 100 divisions) MUST be on refit mode. TOE adjusted to 50% though (most of them already have > 50% anyway), to make sure they don't suck manpower. Well, every unit in the rear will be refitting in fact, as long as I adjust the maximum TOE accordingly

Yes, you want them on refit mode far in the rear. In addition, to make sure they gain experience as fast as possible, make sure that they are placed on a rail line (9.3.1), as experience is the main factor impacting actual CV (easy to see if you compare units with similar experience but different morale, and similar morale, but different experience).I think the main challenge as the Soviet player is to somehow get the morale and experience of your units higher - you don't really have too much of a problem with getting the pure number of boots on the ground, but it makes a huge difference if you have 30/30, 40/40, or 50/50 infantry.

What would be the benefit of 50 percent Toe? Just wondering if there is anything else besides saving manpower

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"We are going to attack all night, and attack tomorrow morning..... If we are not victorious, let no one come back alive!" -- Patton WITE-Beta WITW-Alpha The Logistics Phase is like Black Magic and Voodoo all rolled into one.

The truth is during 1941, training units is a luxury you cannot afford if you want to stop the Axis tide. But still... had I kept those units on refit mode (until they got to the frontline) I would have gained some morale points Each time I saw an unit surrounded by a blue rectangle, I clicked on refit off. Thinking "nooooo! Don't suck manpower and armaments, you fools!". And they were simply training If you play around with the maximum TOE, it should work like a charm. It WILL, given that this is going to be one of my top priorities!

What would be the benefit of 50 percent Toe? Just wondering if there is anything else besides saving manpower

That's probably it; the Soviets get something like 450 division equivalents in the end if you don't lose a bunch after October '41, and it takes ALOT to fill them all out properly. Keeping units at 50% means they will train well, but not suck all manpower away from the front lines.

What would be the benefit of 50 percent Toe? Just wondering if there is anything else besides saving manpower

Imagine the unit has only the 43% of its TOE. If you don't change the max TOE (100%), they would be sucking a lot of resources, badly needed elsewhere. It's about training the units, not about filling the ranks. You want the former, you avoid the latter

I like the fact that your game is just a couple turns ahead of mine so I can pick up timely tips along the way. There's definitely more of an opportunity for the Axis to do damage in 1942 without all these forts. Of course that won't prevent some from lamenting that the Soviets are still too strong.

I had said I've got two Guards Mountain Divisions. One of them had been attached to the Mighty (we hope! ) First Guards Army. I changed my mind. Who knows. For sure this army will be committed to meet the enemy summer offensive. I would not like to lose one of these divisions... because I am already thinking about a scary & nasty Guards Mountain Corps

So I send both divisions to Gorky. So train well, have fun and lots of vodka. Don't chase nurses though, at least whilst they're working!

And here's the mega refit spam. All the units 10 hexes minimum away from enemy units are refitting. Better later than never! I can't feel my fingers <click click click>! Still, sending individual pilots to the reserve in WitP AE was much worse (not anymore, as they finally fixed that nonsense)

TOE obviously adjusted to 50%: most of them, if not all, already have a TOE > 50% so I'm safe.

Do you refit them at 50% toe? If so when they get replaced 100% the new replacements will lower the morale an xp. Try to set a unit to 100% and see what happens.

Holy sh**!! I knew there was a flaw on my plan! Well, more clicks I guess. The maximum TOE is set to 70% (100% for Guards). Thank you very much as I hadn't paid attention to this!

Flavius, this is still Step 1: gathering the reserves. Then step two: form armies, Shock, Guards and Regular (a dozen minimum). Then I will be more or less spreading these armies behind the whole front. In fact only in the center and south, just like I did on my other game. As for the independent units, same thing I guess. They can also dig, indeed.

Well, why not put your guards units on the Don? This is your ne plus ultra line, after all. That's where I put my guards at the tail end of the blizzard, anyways. I want them there, dug in nicely, ready to flip over to corps if need be, especially by Voronezh. You have to hold the Don, if the German gets past that...

Yes, I will follow your advice and therefore start sending the Guards to the Don. After all, I want to preserve the Guards. Only the First Guards Army is supposed to contain Guards (100%). The Shock armies don't -as per last changes. And as for the Regular armies [I form small armies -4 or 5 rifle divisions-, à la Roman Legions, they give me flexibility, I think; in any case that's what the Soviets did] exceptionally 1 Guards division maximum. We will see.

I'm not so sure having that many RR brigades matters so much anymore, tbh. I build as many as you do and am no longer very impressed with the results. The front is so fluid in so many spots that it could be argued that a lot of this manpower tied to construction assets is wasted. Only where the front is relatively static does the investment pay off.

Forts generally, hell the defense generally, have been seriously devalued in this patch. They build more slowly, and at a lower level. Getting anything past level 2 is a pain in the ass. And then there's the stupid enemy pioneers. Your forts may as well not even exist wherever they are concentrated. It's made terrain even more important. Terrain is proof against enemy engineers, too.

Fort lines can no longer be extemporized. They have to be preplanned. I'm wondering rather than just giving everybody construction assets, instead maybe they should be targetted to armies specifically tasked with digging (exception: maybe the guys near Leningrad.) Sapper armies. STAVKA itself can act like one and hold a bunch of construction assets.

The only places you can rapidly throw up fort lines are where urban labor is plentiful, i.e., Moscow and Leningrad.

I had said I've got two Guards Mountain Divisions. One of them had been attached to the Mighty (we hope! ) First Guards Army. I changed my mind. Who knows. For sure this army will be committed to meet the enemy summer offensive. I would not like to lose one of these divisions... because I am already thinking about a scary & nasty Guards Mountain Corps

So I send both divisions to Gorky. So train well, have fun and lots of vodka. Don't chase nurses though, at least whilst they're working!